Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-05-22
Sunday, May "a. 1887.
MIR. GEORGES PLAN APPLIED.

MR.. GEORGES PLAN APPLIED.
We have heard much of late about
the southern boom and how north
ern people and northern capital were
finding better fields for operation in
the south than could be found any
where else. Judge Kelly, of Pennsyl-
vania, has just returned from the
south, and speaks in glowing terms of
the bright prospects there, especially
in Florida, which he thinks is des-
tined 10 take high rank among the
agricultural states of the Union. At.
lanta, Chattanooga, Nashville, Bir-
minghsm and other points, where
there has been an unusual develop
ment of mineral our and a Eotic-
able activity In various lines of manu-
features, have sent out the most *
travagnnt reports Of the business pros
perity now enjoyed and of the bright
prospects for the future. The very
novelty of a "boom" in the south has
attracted attention and magnified the
inducements offered in the eyes of the
adventures who have flocked into the
railroad towns. And yet II Is stated
by a no less competent authority than
Secretary Lamar that this appearance
of thrift and prosperity which strikes
the traveller passing through the coun.
try on railroads as so encouraging is
only skin deep" In a recent lengthy
interview with a correspondent of the
New York Mail and Express, Secre-
tary Lamar stated some things that do
not agree with the generally accepted
notion of great prosperity in'the south.
He says that while the new centers of
commercial enterprise may be thrifty,
Savannah, Charleston, Mobile and
New Orleans are either losing in pop
ulation and business or not keeping up
With the general advance Of the coun-
try at large. He attributes this chiefly
to the decline in agriculture which he
claims is to be met with nearly every
where back a short distance from the
railroads and the new commercial
centres. Cotton IL still king In the
south, but IL Is king Of a kingdom that
il not keeping pace with the march of
progress. While the south has in
creased In population over 80 per cent.
in the last quarter of a century, the
unusually large cotton crop of 1886
was only % per cent. larger than that
of 1860. There Is a measure Of unfair
ness, of course, in comparing the pro-
gress Of the south with that of the
west, but ii Is not unfair to compare
its wi agricultural progress In the
production of a commodity of ready
sale In which il has q monor-
oily in this country with its
our growth In population. The de-
cline in the cotton yield Mr.. Lamar
attributes to poor farming and a worn
Out NULL Ilt tunDot bt httuDtu '"
prejudice against the south. nor his
facilities for obtaining information
be Questioned. He says further that
this exhausted condition of the land
and poor crops comes from the rental
system IN vogue there. The colored
people have no interest In the land
further than to get the most they a
out Of IL for the time being. They
have no interest In the future OF the
land. Sucf q thing as fertilizing Ii In
any way they never dream of. Before
the war, says Mr.. Lamar. when the
land was farmed under the immediate
direction Of the man who owned It,
the situation was different, The EN-
ter a never be brought to take the
personal intesest In preserving the
quality of the soil that the owner does.
That Is not theory; II Ii experience e.
There il all through the south where
this renting system prevails, a con-
stantly decreasing yield per acre, and
an exhausted and comparatively
worthless soil. IL 1, the same fate
which always overtakes the rented
farm, but In the condition Of things
which MI. Lamar pictures II Ia not an
isolated case. which attracts u atten-
ton, but q general condition Of things
covering what was naturally the rich-
est agricultural portion of the country.
Now here we seem to have the George
land theory, In its most essential par
'~ticulAr, applied IN q large scale for a
series Of years where " 10 possible to
zee the results. The southern farmers
are u nation of renters. They do not
rent Of the state, but they have practi-
caliy the same tenure which the ma
tionalixAtiou Of land would give them
the tenure which comes from pay